The present invention relates to an electronic assembly, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for detaching a component in an electronic assembly.
The cooling of a heat-generating component is always an important topic. To prevent overheating-induced damage, it is necessary to cool a heat-generating component efficiently. Take an integrated circuit (IC) component as an example; its cooling is increasingly important, as the clock speed and the quantity of complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) components in each chip increase. In general, integrated circuit chips are cooled by a heat-dissipating component, such as a cooling block, a heat sink, a heat pipe, etc. According to the prior art, the heat sink is made of aluminum or copper and attached to a component mechanically or by means of an adhesive.
In another aspect, due to a great increase in the requirement of computation capability and capacity, important goals of system hardware design include optimizing computing/processing capability and minimizing physical space. In this regard, a solution is a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) with a high-density of integrated circuit chips.
During a process of producing a high-level technology and high-efficiency electronic product, the capability of reworking and restoring a component of the electronic product, for example, fixing a defect of an expensive semiconductor component, cooling fins, and a substrate or restoring or reusing the component, is of vital importance in the enhancement of product yield, reduction of waste, and reduction of costs. From the perspective of PCBA rework technology that involves mounting a component in place with an adhesive, the major consideration is about whether the adhesive material can be successfully removed from a contact surface in a reworking process without damaging a component so as to enable defect repair, chip replacement, and maintenance of expensive components.
Regarding a heat sink or other heat-dissipating components used in the aforesaid PCBA technology, PCBA technology is highly sensitive to temperature variation, and the spacing between high-density components of a PCBA is also dwindling, so it is intricate and difficult to remove a heat sink during an assembly process in order to perform rework thereon.
A conventional process of removing a heat sink comprises the steps of: placing a PCBA in a convection oven; heating the PCBA at a specific temperature for 5-15 minutes (wherein the temperature and time depend on the type of the adhesive used); removing the PCBA from the oven after the required temperature (a typical temperature of approximately 125° C.) is reached; and removing the heat sink manually under a torque parallel to the plane of a heat sink or by means of a cleave tool.
The aforesaid prior art has drawbacks. First, due to very small spacing between high-density components of a PCBA, the space between the high-density components of the PCBA is quite limited. It is difficult to remove the heat sink, and the removal of the heat sink must be under careful consideration of how to apply force thereon or requires additional layout space designed beforehand. Second, the probability of removing the heat sink successfully depends on a maintenance engineer's related work experience, especially the maintenance engineer's skill and ability. If the duration of the removal process is long, component temperature will be lower than an operable temperature such that the removal process cannot be successfully performed. Third, a conventional process of separating an integrated circuit chip and a heat sink often causes BGA lid to come off, thereby rework costs are added.
Accordingly, there exists a need in the art to overcome the deficiencies and limitations described hereinabove.